The Role of Empathy in Prejudiced Perceptions Toward Crime Victims in a Turkish Sample

Crime victims may experience severe adversities after victimization. These can manifest themselves in the form of stigmatization within society and exposure to prejudiced perceptions, both of which result in secondary victimization. Stereotypes toward crime victims and individual levels of empathy may be important variables in predicting these prejudiced perceptions. Thus, the present study examined how stereotypical and prejudiced perceptions toward crime victims are related to empathy. Specifically, the study evaluated the mediating and moderating roles of empathy levels in this relationship. Data obtained from 937 adult participants were analyzed using RStudio, wherein the Lavaan and PROCESS packages were utilized for the mediation and moderation models, respectively. The findings revealed that empathy plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice. Furthermore, the moderation analyses showed that the effect of stereotypes on prejudice was significantly weaker among individuals with high empathy. Crucially, the moderating (buffering) role of empathy was determined to be stronger than its mediating role. These findings strongly suggest that empathy functions as a critical protective buffer, inhibiting the conversion of stereotypes into prejudice. This highlights the necessity for interventions-particularly for justice and social service professionals-to focus on cultivating empathy as a regulatory mechanism rather than merely treating it as a desirable outcome.